GitHub PR Review

When to Use

Use this when reviewing a GitHub pull request. Covers information gathering, context understanding, change analysis, and the review/approval workflow.

Process

1. Gather PR Information

# Get PR title, description, and comments
gh pr view <PR-number> --json title,body,comments

# Get the full diff
gh pr diff <PR-number>

2. Understand the Context

# List modified files
gh pr view <PR-number> --json files

Examine original files in the main branch to understand context around changes.

3. Analyze the Changes

For each modified file, understand what changed, why, how it affects the codebase, and potential side effects. Look for:

• Code quality issues
• Potential bugs
• Performance implications
• Security concerns
• Test coverage

4. User Confirmation

Before making a decision, present your assessment and ask the user whether to approve or request changes.

5. Draft a Comment (Optional)

Offer to draft a well-structured comment the user can copy and paste.

6. Make a Decision

# Approve
gh pr review <PR-number> --approve --body "Your message"

# Request changes
gh pr review <PR-number> --request-changes --body "Your feedback"

# Multi-line with proper formatting
cat << EOF | gh pr review <PR-number> --approve --body-file -
Your multi-line message
EOF

# Comment only (no approval/rejection)
gh pr review <PR-number> --comment --body "Your comment"

Common Commands

# List open PRs
gh pr list

# View PR details
gh pr view <PR-number> --json title,body,comments,files,commits

# PR diff
gh pr diff <PR-number>

# Check out PR locally
gh pr checkout <PR-number>

# Check PR status/checks
gh pr checks <PR-number>
gh pr status

# Merge PR
gh pr merge <PR-number> --merge

Review Guidelines

• Talk like a friendly reviewer. Keep it short. Thank the author (@mention them).
• Give a quick summary of your understanding, stay humble.
• Request changes if you have suggestions rather than approving with caveats.
• Leave inline comments only when you have something specific to say about the code.